From Barbara Miller to Lynn Krabbe; Prosecutor Change Came At Peculiar Time

By | December 21, 2008

by Brian A. Wilkins
12/21/08

ORIGINAL LINK: http://blog.operation-nation.com/2008/12/21/from-barbara-miller-to-lynn-krabbe-prosecutor-change-came-at-peculiar-time.aspx

This is a tie-in to the “55 Days…” blog. If you’ve missed any entries, to view them all in descending order.

On October 1, for the first time since all this mess started, I finally had an opportunity to meet with the trial attorney (via the public defender’s office) who would be handling this case. This would also be the first time someone actually sat and listened to me, hearing the facts as to what happened the night of July 21.

Michael Ziemba, the public defender, showed me that latest plea offer (Page 1, Page 2, Page 3) for probation and community service if I plead guilty to possession of paraphernalia and disorderly conduct, both “unclassified” offenses (not a felony or misdemeanor).

Again, I would gladly and willingly plead guilty to possession, but will NEVER plead guilty to anything victimizing the criminal alleged “victim.” Because too much time has passed between that night and this day, there would likely be no way I could prove that alleged “victim” held me at knife-point in my apartment. What I could prove, beyond ANY doubt, is that I was subsequently extorted. I typed up a list of all the messages the alleged “victim” sent me between 1130pm-3am that night. When Ziemba saw these messages, he asked me what the police said when I showed them that night. As it says on the police report, they called the messages “basically name calling.”

He then informed me that the prosecutor, Barbara Miller, really did not like the alleged “victim” as she felt he was a “racist” and likely had ulterior motives in calling the police. Neither she, nor he, knew what any of the messages said until I showed him, as they are all still on my phone. He informed me that once she saw these messages, which contain a clear extortion attempt, several physical threats, and of course, numerous racial slurs, she would probably drop all the charges.

My next court date would be on October 22. When I got there, I asked him what the prosecutor said about the messages. He informed me that she didn’t think they would matter. But here’s the kicker: “she” was no longer Barbara Miller; “she” was now Lynn Krabbe. All of a sudden, after Ziemba had obtained hard evidence as to what happened and gave me the best news I’d heard in four months, the State of Arizona changed prosecutors. Was Ms. Miller going to drop the charges? Do the state and county want to incarcerate me so bad, they changed prosecutors from one who likely felt there was no case to one who just wants to grand stand? It would have been one thing if the prosecutor was changed in August or September, but once an attorney finally sat, talked to me, and gathered facts, a new prosecutor is given the case?

Apparently changing judges and/or prosecutors is nothing unusual as long as it gives the state a better chance to convict people. In Rodney Smith’s case, the alleged “South Mountain Shooter,” who was forced to protect himself from thugs attacking him in South Phoenix, originally had Judge George H. Foster, an “African-American,” and former Vice-President of the Phoenix Urban League,  assigned to his case.

A few weeks later, on August 15, prosecutor Heather Wicht requested, and was granted, a change in judges. Judge Cari A. Harrison, a European American woman, is now the judge for his case. Wicht must have felt Mr. Smith would get TOO FAIR of a trial if Judge Foster saw the case.

In a county and state where rogue sheriffs arrest journalists for writing stories about them, these mysterious judge and prosecutor changes only add to the corrupt practices that take place down in the southwest. But again, if I could AFFORD justice, none of this would matter anyway.

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